Driving mechanism for spinning frames



p 1934- J. A. KOOISITRA 1,973,348

DRIVING MECHANISM FOR SPINNING FRAMES Filed Jan. 4, 1933 2 Sheets-Sheet. l

INVENTOR.

' ATTORNEYS.

DRIVING MECHANISM FOR SPINNING FRAMES Filed Jan. 4, 1933 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR.

BY #5! afimm.

ATTORNEYS.

Patented Sept. 11, 1934 UNITED STATES DRIVING MECHANISM FRAM mm A. Kooistra, Whitinsville, Mass,

FOR SPINNING assignor to Whitin'Machine Works, Whitinsville, Mass, a corporation of Massachusetts Application January 4, 1933, Serial No. 650,125

5 Claims. (01. 118-41) This invention relates to spinning or twisting frames and particularly to frames in which both spinning spindles and twister heads are used. Such machines are well adapted to spinning wool and other long fiber material, and the twister heads are employed to impart a preliminary or false twist to the yarn. This preliminary twist is very slight and is imparted merely to hold the yarn together between widely spaced pairs of drawing rolls and before deliveryto the spinning spindles.-

It is desirable. that the direction of rotation of the spinning spindles be readily reversible for the production of yarn having a right-hand or a left-hand twist as desired. Reversal of the twister heads is unnecessary, however, and furthermore is quite undesirable, as such reversal involves the laborious relative shifting of all of the driving bands for the twister heads for reasons to be explained.

It is the general object of my invention to provide improved driving .mechanism for a spinning or twisting machine, by which the direction of rotation of the spinning spindles may be conveniently reversed.

A further object is to provide driving mechanism by which the direction of rotation of the twister heads will remain unchanged when the direction of rotation of the spindles is reversed.

My invention further'relates to arrangements and combinations of parts which will be hereinafter described and more particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

A preferred form of the invention is shown in the drawings, in which Fig. 1 is an end elevation, partly in section, showing my improved driving mechanism;

Fig. 2 is an end'view of certain of the parts appearing in Fig. 1 but in a diiferent driving relation, and I Fig. 3 is a partial plan view of thedriving mechanism for the twister heads.

Referring to Fig. 1, I have shown portions of a wool spinning frame comprising a plurality of twister heads T and spinningrspindles S. The twister heads T are mounted on asupporting rail in the upper portion of the frame and are driven by separate bands 11 from an upper drive cylinder 12 mounted on a cylinder shaft 13.

The spindles S are mounted on spindle rails 15 movable vertically by suitable lifter mechanism, not shown but of any usual type.- The spindles S are commonly driven in opposed pairs by bands 16 directed by guide pulleys 17 and 18and passing around a lower drive cylinder 20 and a lower idle cylinder 21. This spindle drive construcv tion is such that thedirection of rotation of the spindles may be reversed whenever desired by merely reversing the direction of rotationof the lower drive cylinder 20. 1

For a more complete description of the spindle drive, reference is made to my prior Patent No. 1,820,310 issued August 25, 1931.

The yarn Y is drawn downward from a suit-' able yarn supply by upper drawing rolls and is drawn through the twister heads T by lower drawing rolls 31. The yarn then passes through guide openings in a board 32 and is drawn through travelers 33 mounted on spinning rings 34 which in turn are secured to a fixed ring rail 35. The yarn Y is thenwound on bobbins B mounted on and rotated by the spindles S. v

This arrangement of drawing, twisting and spinning devices is a usual commercial construction and in itselfinvolves no part of my invention, which relates particularly to the driving mechanism which will now be described.

For driving my improved machine, I provide a motor M, preferably mounted on the fioor or other supporting structure, and having a pulley or 0 sprocket 40 connected by a belt or chain 41 to a substantially larger pulley or sprocket 42 on a fixed stud or shaft 43., A change gear or sprocket 44 is fixed to the pulley 42 and drives a lower chain 45 which passes around an idler or guide sprocket 46 and over'a second sprocket 47 when the parts are in the driving relation indicated in Fig. 1. I

The sprocket 47 is mounted on a fixed stud 48 and a sprocket 49 is secured thereto and rotates therewith. An intermediate chain 50 is driven by the sprocket 49 and passes around an idler sprocket 51 mounted on a fixed stud 52 and also has driving engagement with the under side of a sprocket 53 mounted on the drive shaft 54 of the lower drive cylinder 20 previously described.

A sprocket 60 is also secured to the drive shaft 54 and actuates an upper drive chain 61 which passes over a guide sprocket 62 and drives a sprocket63 on the upper cylinder shaft 13. The guide sprockets 46'and 62are mounted on studs slidable. in slots 64 and 65 for purposes of adjustment.

When the parts are arranged as shown in Fig;

1, thecylinders 12 and 20 will both be rotated in an anti-clockwise direction, and the belts 11 and 16 will be driven in the direction indicated by the arrows thereon. The twister heads T and spindles S will thus be given clockwise rotation (as viewed in plan). v

Assuming that the spindles S are to be given a reverse direction of rotation, it is desirable that the direction of rotation of the twister heads '1 remain unchanged for a reason which will be clearly evident by reference to Fig. 3.

It is clear that the portion of each spindle band which is on the drive side andis running from the twister head to the cylinder will position itself in a plane perpendicular to the axis of the cyl-' inder. Consequently when the twister heads are rotated in a clockwise direction, the bands will assume the relative positions shown inFigL 3 If, however, the direction of rotation is reversed, the driving sides of the bands will hereversed and it will be necessary to place the banda in Fig. 3 below the band b (as viewed in Fig. 3) in order to prevent interference of the hands. This would require the laborious relative shifting of every pair of bands on the cylinder whenever the direction of rotation of the cylinder and twister heads was reversed. Asthe twist imparted by the twister heads is merely a slightpreliminary or false twist, it is entirely immaterial whether this twist is righthand or left-hand and it is'consequently very desirable to continuouslyrotate the twister heads ,in'one direction regardless of the direction of rotation of the spinning spindles; Consequently, when the direction of rotation of the spindles is to be reversed, I re-arrange the drivingchains 45 and 61 as shown in Fig. 2, so

that the lower chain 45 now drives the sprocket 66 on the cylinder shaft 54, and the chain 61 which drives the sprocket 63 on the cylinder shaft 13 is now, actuated through the intermediate chain to and sprockets 49 and 47.

With these connections, the direction of rotation of the lower cylinder shaft 54 is reversed from that shown in Fig. 1, while the direction of rotation of the upper cylinder shaft '13 remains unchanged. Consequently the spindles, S will now be rotated in an anti-clockwise direction 6 as viewed in plan), while the twister heads T will continue to rotate in a clockwise direction.

I am thus able to reverse the direction of rotation of the spindlesS without reversing the twister headsT and without reversing the motor M, this result being obtained by the simple shifting of the drive chains 45 and 61 from the positions shown in Fig. 1 to those shown in Fig. 2.

The studs of the guide pulleys 46 and 62 may be loosened to permit convenient removal and replacement of the driving chains, and may be adjusted in. the slots 64 and 65 to take up the slack in either position. V

If it is desired to increase or decrease the speed of the twister heads Tend spindles Srelative to the constant speed of rotation of the motor M, this may bereadily accomplished lay-changing the drive sprocket 4a to a larger or smaller sprocket, this sprocket 44. being designed for change speed purposes'and constituting an initial driving element through which all of the power is transmitted. I

, It will be understood that the terms sprockets and chains as; used in the claims cover pulleys and belts as obvious equivalents. I

It will also be noted that the words drive directly as used inthe claims are intended to refer to a, construction in which a driving member and a driven memherare directly connected as by a single belt or chain'while the words drive indirectly imply the use of additional and'intermediate driving connections;

Having thus described my invention and the two cylinders, and transmitting means eifective to rotate said lower cylinder in either selected direction while the direction of rotation of said upper cylinder remains unchanged, said transmitting meanscomprising a constantly rotated member, and driving connections from said memberselectiv'ely eflective to drive one of said cylinders directly from said member and to drive the other cylinder indirectly from said member but in the opposite direction through an additional intermediate driving connection, or to drive both cylinders indirectly from said member and inthe same direction through said additional intermediate driving connection.

-2'. In a spinning frame having a plurality of twister heads and a plurality of spinning spindles, in combination, an upper cylinder and driving devices for said twister heads, a lowercylinder andadditional driving devices for said spinning spindles, a common prime mover for driving said two cylinders, and transmitting means efie'ctive to rotate said lower cylinder in either selected direction while the direction of rotation of said upper cylinder remains unchanged, said transmitting means comprising a sprocket on said upper cylinder, a sprocket on said lower cylinder, a driving sprocket continuously rotated in one direction, and selective'means to connect said driving sprocket either directly to said lower cylinder sprocket or indirectly to said lower cylinder sprocket through an additional intermediate driving connection and to connect said lower cylinder sprocket either directly to said upper cylinder sprocket or through said additional intermediate driving connection indirectly to said upper cylinder sprocket.

3. .In a spinning frame having a plurality of twister heads and a plurality of spinning spindles, in combination, an upper cylinder and driving devices for said twister heads, a lower cylinder and additional driving devices for said spinning spindles, 'a common prime mover for driving said two cylinders, and transmitting'means effective to rotate said lower cylinder in either selected direction while the direction of rotation of said upper cylinder remains unchanged, said'transmitting meanscomprising aconstantlyrotated sprocket, a sprocket on each of said cylinders, idler and guide sprockets, upperand lower driv- 'mg chains and an intermediate chain, said upper and lower chains being selectively engageable with'diiferent combinations of said sprockets.

4. In a spinning frame having a plurality of twister heads and a plurality of spinning spindles, in combination, an upper cylinder and driving devices for said twister heads, a lower cylinder and additional driving devices for said spinning spindies, a common prime mover for driving said two cylinders, and transmitting means effective to rotate said lower cylinder in either selected directi'on while the direction of rotation of said upper cylinder remains unchanged, said transmitting means comprising an upper pair of sprockets, one of which is mounted on said upper cylinder, an intermediate pair of sprockets, one of which is mounted on said lower cylinder, alower pair of sprockets, one of which is constantly rotated by said prime mover, a reverse driving connection between said intermediate sprockets, a lower chain connecting said lower pair of sprockets to a selected intermediate sprocket, and an upper chain connecting said upper pair of sprockets to the other intermediate sprocket, said upper and lower chains being each selectively engageable with either intermediate sprocket.

5. In a spinning frame having a plurality of twister heads and a plurality of spinning spindles, in combination, an upper cylinder and driving devices for said twister heads, a lower cylinder and additional driving devices for said spinning spindles, a common prime mover for driving said two cylinders, and transmitting means effective to rotate said lower cylinder in either selected di-' rection while the direction of rotation of said upper cylinder remains unchanged, said transmitting means comprising an upper pair of sprockets, one of which is mounted on said upper cylinder, an intermediate pair of sprockets, one of which is mounted on said lower cylinder, 2, lower pair of sprockets, one of which is constantly rotated by said prime mover, an intermediate chain connecting said intermediate sprockets for rotation in opposite directions, and driving connections from said constantly rotated sprocket to a selected one of said intermediate sprockets and from the other intermediate sprocket to the upper cylinder sprocket.

JOHN A. KOOISTRA. 

